They’re so dominant now in the calendar that the Stableford is almost synonymous with a club competition. It’s no real surprise. Have a nightmare on one hole in a medal and your day is basically over. In a Stableford, simply put down zero or a dash on the card and move on. It doesn’t necessarily define your event.
But did you know that there are subtle differences between Medal and Stableford when it comes to the Rules of Golf?
They are covered in Rule 21 so, points aside, let’s look at a trio of things you might not have known about Stableford if you hadn’t been peeking in the book…
Stableford scoring: Did you know these Stableford rules?
You are only responsible for your gross score
Your committee might like you to add up your points totals, they can encourage that you do so as part of their Terms of Competition ,and they can even sanction you if you repeatedly refuse.
But you can’t be disqualified from a competition, or have a penalty applied under the Rules of Golf, if you don’t.
Your responsibilities are to enter your holes scores on the scorecard – either with the actual score if you’d get points, or showing no score or any score that would result in zero points being awarded – and to make sure both you and your marker have signed that scorecard.
Adding up the points, and applying handicap strokes to the scores entered for each hole before working out the points total, is actually down to the committee. So don’t worry if you’ve totted up the points wrongly. As long as you’ve got your hole scores right you’ll be fine.
